Here's to a great summer, everyone! I know, I may be jumping the gun on that one but I'm hoping things will warm up in May and see tomorrow as a new beginning (one without a hint of tonsillitis, hopefully, so I can get to work on the zillion other things I want to do with OSFlash, Arp, AS3 and Flex 2, and, of course, the courses!) 
Archive for the 'Flash and ActionScript Training' Category
If you attended any of my Hot Shots training sessions in either February or April, you should have received an email a few moments ago alerting you to a little surprise: I've decided to give all previous students a complete course pack with the seminar notes and examples from all six of the courses as a small thank-you for your support! If, by chance, you haven't received the email, please contact me directly and I'll send you another copy.
Based on the interest and wonderful feedback I got for my Hot Shots courses this month, I'm going to be holding them again in April. I've also added a new course to the line-up: Foundations of Macromedia Flash 8, bringing the number of courses in the series to six.
The Foundations of Macromedia Flash 8 course assumes little or no prior knowledge of the Flash IDE and is perfect for you if you're is just starting out, want to fill in the gaps and really learn the tool -- and the latest features in version 8 -- or to get up to speed if you're coming to Flash from other (more traditional) development environments.
It's currently Happy Hour at Hot Shots until March 24th, 2006. If you sign up before then, you get the early-bird price of £145/course (exc. VAT) and can take all six courses for just £725 (exc. VAT) That's six days of top-notch Flash and Flex training!
Dates: 6-7th April & 10-13th April, 2006
Time: 9:30am for 10am start - 6pm
Place: City University in London (nearest tube: Angel)
Price £145/course. This offer is only valid until March 24th; £199 thereafter (exc. VAT).
You can mix and match any two or more seminars for discounts. See this page for full pricing information and to reserve your place.
The courses in the Hot Shots series are:
- Foundations of Flash 8
- Foundations of Object-Oriented ActionScript 2
- Best Practices Flash and Flex Development
- Head Start: ActionScript 3
- Head Start: Flex 2
- Open Source Flash Development
I'm also trying something new this time: If you refer a friend, you'll get a cool £50 from me via PayPal. All you have to do is ask your friend to enter the special code IMAHOTSHOT along with your email address in to the notes during the PayPal checkout process and you will receive £50 via PayPal, to that email address, after your friend completes the course. This offer is only available for PayPal checkouts.
You can refer as many friends as you like and you'll get £50 per friend referred.
To take advantage of this offer yourself, just enter your own email address in the notes during checkout. Yes, you can use this code yourself and get £50 off the price of the course... so what are you waiting for?
You can get more information, read previous students' comments and sign up on the Ariaware Training homepage.
Wow... what an exhilarating experience, teaching five different courses in as many days! I loved every minute of it and had a great time. And apparently so did my students. Here are some of the wonderful comments I received from them:
"Amazing!"
"Your AS3 course was amazing. Very informative, with great explanations. I got much more than I expected out of the lesson and will highly recommend this class!"
"Once again, I absolutely loved this class. I'm very glad I was here for this!"
Andrea Black, Moov2 Ltd.
Head Start: ActionScript 3 (AS3)
"Excellent course, looking forward to the next ones!"
Ford Leefarr, swebtec.com
Head Start: Flex 2
"It's a massive help to be guided through the jungle of complexity that is the world of OSFlash. I must have saved a couple of weeks R+D in one day!"
Seb Lee-Delisle, Plug-in Media
Open Source Flash Development
"If you consider yourself an Actionscript Developer and value your craft, you can't afford to miss the Best Practices course!"
Steve Buckley, Original Image
Best Practices Flash & Flex Development
"What an awesome week, I thought attending the entire week would be tough to maintain attention and concentration, not at all the case. The Best Practices seminar WILL change the way we work around here some extremely insightful and useful techniques and approaches that more developers should be aware of and adopting. Head start AS3 and Flex 2 courses were fascinating, exciting and educational, I can't wait to start developing using both technologies and I now have more than enough confidence to do so. During the OSFD course it was an excellent insight into the osflash revolution and I found projects I can use to improve my productivity and also projects I was inspired to try and contribute to. You cannot teach yourself this level of knowledge in this amount of time."
Dan Thomas, Moov2 Ltd.
(Email testimonial; all courses)
"I'm now clear about the role of Flex + how I might start to use it"
Simon Gregory, Tribal DDB
Head Start: Flex 2
"Brilliant explanations and analysis"
Samantha Grant, Tribal DDB
Foundations of Object-Oriented AS2
"The level was just right. There was a lot to take in as it's a vast subject but I believe it has given me a good grounding to progress much further."
"Very pleasant and knowledgeable."
Nick Clements, Tribal DDB
Foundations of Object-Oriented AS2
"Examples like RSS-Aggregator were 'real world', not too abstract; the speaker's excitement went over to me… :)"
"Inspiring"
Jörg Müller, Berger Baader Hermes (Germany)
Head Start: Flex 2
"Great lively course with well presented content."
Steve Buckley, Original Image
Foundations of Object-Oriented AS2
"Passionately presented, informative and inspiring further experimentation into AS3. . . fantastic information and free coffee!"
Alisdair Mills, Mook
Head Start: ActionScript 3 (AS3)
"The enthusiasm of explaining and presenting made me want to go and write better code"
Fraser Hobbs, MRM Partners
Foundations of Object-Oriented AS2
"Increased my understanding greatly"
"Relaxed, informal approach made information easier to take in"
Jessica Love, BD-NTWK
Foundations of Object-Oriented AS2
"Aral's enthusiasm is contagious. The seminars far-exceed my expectations, and I was left feeling both excited and empowered. There was a great deal of information to take in, but it was conveyed in an expert and manageable manner, and all backed up with impressive real world examples. We didn't just learn what to do, but why we were doing it. I only wished I'd signed up for all the seminars – next time I will"
Neil Webb, Cambridge University; nwebb.co.uk
Head Start: Flex 2
"Liked the broad + comprehensive into the topic, and the enthusiastic and approachable tone the course was delivered in"
Jim Hunt, BD-NTWK
Foundations of Object-Oriented AS2
"Approachable instructor & the fact that IT MADE SENSE!!"
Richard Atkins, Tribal DDB
Head Start: ActionScript 3 (AS3)
"Was solid & felt good"
Wil Padley, BD-NTWK
Foundations of Object-Oriented AS2
"It was a great refresher and there were some really helpful tips and tricks :)"
"The presentation was great and all questions were answered patiently (even the tricky ones) :)"
Regina Dowling, Berger Baader Hermes (Germany)
Foundations of Object-Oriented AS2
"Very good intro. It is very difficult to learn something completely new – but much easier to learn a lot from a little – i.e., this intro. From this I am confident of using OOP techniques and investigating further."
John Howlett, Eclipse Technology Services
Foundations of Object-Oriented AS2
"Presenter is very passionate about his work and it is very beneficial to the students"
Andrea Black, Moov2 Ltd.
Foundations of Object-Oriented AS2
"Aral's presentation was very clear – great speaker in my opinion Easy to follow… actually quite entertaining."
"Great value"
Jörg Müller, Berger Baader Hermes (Germany)
Foundations of Object-Oriented AS2
"I needed to know this stuff!"
Alistair MacDonald, Nubz
Foundations of Object-Oriented AS2
"The course was very good; enjoyable, interesting and very inspiring."
"All elements of the course were presented intelligently and concisely"
Ross Christie, Tribal DDB
Head Start: ActionScript 3 (AS3)
"I liked the structure… I'm hoping you will run the courses again as I would like to have the chance to attend the final two days."
Colin Light, Gossip Multimedia
Head Start: ActionScript 3 (AS3)
"Very well educated on the topic."
Andrea Black, Moov2 Ltd.
Open Source Flash Development
"Excellent course… on target."
Fred Leefarr, swebtec.com
Head Start: ActionScript 3 (AS3)
"Everything covered was valuable. . . relaxed, friendly, informative."
Neil Webb, Cambridge University
Head Start: ActionScript 3 (AS3)
"Good course – great deal to gain a running start on Flex – very good value"
Steve Buckley, Original Image
Head Start: Flex 2
"Once again an excellent presentation of valuable information. I'm looking forward to future sessions."
Andrea Black, Moov2 Ltd.
Head Start: Flex 2
"Perfect introduction to the subject. Gave enough attention to all details – just enough to inform & wet the appetite."
"Obviously passionate about the subject and that transfers across"
"Really enjoyed the use of real(ish) examples. Allowed us to see the benefits of Flex development."
Alisdair Mills, Mook
Head Start: Flex 2
"All five courses fulfilled my expectations. There was a lot of useful stuff in it. It was demanding at some times -– but not in a bad way –- and it really got me into an excited feeling about developing again (which I haven't had for a while :)) And I've also met a lot of nice people here during the week (I was expecting it to be a lot more "geeky") So thanks for all the advice + tips.
Jörg Müller, Berger Baader Hermes (Germany)
Open Source Flash Development
I couldn't have asked for a greater group of students to keep me on my feet with insightful questions and discussion: thank you all! Further thanks for your invaluable comments and suggestions, some of which I was able to implement even as the week progressed.
On Thursday, after a nine-hour course, I also did a talk at the London MMUG on Flex 2 Beta 1 and then proceeded to return to my hotel room and expire, thus missing the second half of the meeting and Vishal's After Effects presentation that I so wanted to attend -- not to mention the all-important socializing I was looking forward to engaging in at the pub
I thought I'd be dead after teaching a week of classes but, quite the opposite; I'm full of energy and rearing to go. I'm going to be teaching the next Hot Shots courses in April – exact dates to be announced next week and I will, of course, be in Seattle at the end of next week to present on Open Source Flash and teach my Hot Shots: Foundations of Object-Oriented ActionScript 2 course at Flash Forward.
I'm off to London in a few minutes where I'll be staying for the whole of next week as I teach my new series of Hot Shots seminars. I'm going to be teaching five, one-day seminars during the week (and I can't even begin to imagine how dead I'm going to be at the end of it!) We've got thirty people signed up for the courses, which isn't too shabby at all, especially considering that it's the first time I'm running them and I only announced it last month!
We've got thirty people signed up for the courses, which isn't too shabby at all, especially considering that it's the first time I'm running them and I only announced it last month!
Also, Peter Hall called me -- he's apparently in town and I'm hoping to see him (and perhaps even Grant) tonight and give him grief about not updating his blog He's such a Bostoner now... dude, come home!
In any case, I'm going to be dead for a week so if I go silent, you know why. I'm planning on rejoining the land of the living sometime around the coming Monday.
Now that Flex Beta 1 has been publicly released, I can announce that I will be using it during the Hot Shots Seminar Series on the Head Start AS3 and Head Start Flex 2 courses in London this February.
Today is the last day for the early bird discount for the Hot Shots courses! Sign up today to lock in the early-bird price of £145/course
Update: So, how chronologically challenged can one person be? Seeing as how January has *31* days (hey... I knew that, ok!) And seeing as today is the 30th... well... *tomorrow* is the last day for the discount.
But what's time anyway... it's all relative... umm... ok, I'll stop digging now! 
A quick reminder for anyone considering attending my Hot Shots courses that the early bird registration for February's courses closes on January 31st, in just 7 days.
One of my students who tried to sign up yesterday for all five of the Hot Shots Seminars was kind enough to inform me that he had difficulty doing so because PayPal asked him to go through a verification process. This is apparently a PayPal policy for payments that exceed £500. I had originally thought that this limitation was only in effect for payments made from a user's PayPal account and not for payments via Credit Card using PayPal but apparently it applies for both. I have to say that PayPal does a very good job of not advertising this fact in a visible manner.
If you experience any issues whatsoever in trying to sign up for the Hot Shots Seminars, please feel free to contact me either by email or telephone.
I've now updated the Hot Shots web pages to add a note informing students that if they run into this problem, they can contact me and I'll be happy to send them an invoice and accept payment via either a bank transfer or cheque.
Also, it has been brought to my attention that PayPal's checkout pages do not make it clear that you do not have to have a PayPal account to pay (you can use your Credit Card without ever opening a PayPal account.) I've also updated the Hot Shots web pages to add instructions for how to pay using your Credit Card via PayPal.
If you experience any issues whatsoever in trying to sign up for the Hot Shots Seminars, please feel free to contact me either by email or telephone.
I'm really excited to see that students have started to sign up from the very first day and look forward to seeing you all in London in February.
Two of the Flash world's top names professed their love for each other today, in a move that is already being called the
Grant Skinner and Aral Balkan publicly declared that they'll be offering discounts to students taking both Grant's Flash 8 Workshop and one or more of Aral's Hot Shots Seminars in London this February.
Students to Grant's workshop will be able to sign up for any Hot Shots seminar for just £99 (or all five for just £495, inc. VAT). Similarly, students taking any Hot Shots seminar will be able to take Grant's Flash 8 Workshop for £350 instead of £400. (This offer can't be combined with any other offers.)
Do the math: If you take all five Hot Shots seminars and Grant's Flash 8 workshop, you'll be getting seven days of world-class training by both of us for under £900! If that's not a deal, I don't know what is (and Grant and I should probably go back to math school ourselves for offering such a crazy deal!)
Contact me if you'd like to advantage of this offer.
Links:
- Grant Skinner's Flash 8 Workshop in London (February 11-12th)
- Aral Balkan's Hot Shots Seminar Series in London (February 13th-17th)
I'm excited to announce that I will be teaching an all-new Hot Shots Seminar Series in 2006 -- the first of which will be held between February 13th-17th, 2006 in London.
The intense, one-day seminars will cover the following topics:
- Foundations of Object-Oriented ActionScript 2
- Best Practices Flash & Flex Development
- Head Start ActionScript 3
- Head Start Flex 2
- Open Source Flash Development
Sign up before February 1st to attend for just £145/course (inc.VAT) -- the regular price after February is £199/course (inc. VAT).
Mix and match your favorite topics or take all five courses for just £625 (inc. VAT) if you sign up before February 1st (£899 regular price, otherwise.) That's an amazing bargain for one week of top-level Flash and Flex training, including the chance to get a head start in AS3 and Flex 2!
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